DK: Ten reasons the Pirates (almost always) can't hit
JOE ROBBINS / GETTY
Bryan Reynolds on the basepaths Sunday at PNC Park.
I don't cross the river to PNC Park in a mood for micro-analysis much anymore, and I can't imagine that many do. Too much has gone too wrong for too long, and we're already halfway through a summer that's got the Pirates on a mathematical pace to lose 100.
So, if there's a nice win?
OK, nice win.
Someone pitched well?
Of course they did. They almost always do.
The offense erupted for eight runs and 15 hits, more than half of those from Spencer Horwitz, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Tommy Pham, to rout the Rangers, 8-3? And Pham doubles twice after not having an extra-base hit since April 26? And drives in three runs to raise his season total to an even dozen?
Ummm ... yeah, let's stick with the macro.
Here are my 10 reasons why the Pirates remain, even after this outlier of an outburst, Major League Baseball's most awful offense, and they're offered in a format that, I hope, presents a case that's both fair and full to all concerned, except, of course, to Ben Cherington, who should've been fired before anyone made it this far through the column:
10. The hitting coaches stink.
I feel the least strongly about this one, given the GM's allotted talent pool, but there's still no way to omit Andy Haines and/or Matt Hague, if only because they've both held one job with one responsibility, and that's to make hitters better. Which, if that's happened under the two major-league hitting coaches Cherington's hired, it's being held like a state secret.
Really, name one.
Just one. Over five-plus years. Not even necessarily someone who became good. Just someone who improved. To any degree. For even a week or two.
Nah?
Kinda problematic.
9. The development stinks worse.
Meaning through the minor-league system, and that's not exactly new. Two American League scouts have told me the Pirates' hitting instruction is such that, even on those rare occasions that an actual talent's put into the pipeline, it's only a matter of time before they revert to a non-swinging, power-free pumpkin, all in the name of pleasing Cherington and the analytics army's broader ambition of watching pitches go by.
Which, as real, live baseball people will attest, shouldn't be fully emphasized until a prospect's closer to the top level. Because -- and this is crazy stuff, I know -- they have to continue learning how to hit. They have to hit before they can walk. As I learned upon a trip to the Dominican Republic a few years back, a common saying among the players there is, 'You can't walk off the island.' Kids have to hit. And to hit, they have to swing.
Take Termarr Johnson: He's 21, he was the Pirates' No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, billed at the time as "one of the best pure high school hitters in recent memory," per MLB Pipeline. He recently fell all the way off Baseball America's top 100 list, and he's down to 81 on Pipeline.
Why? His four-year slash line is .241/.379/.402, with only the middle one -- on-base percentage -- being encouraging. He has 232 walks, but that's against 261 hits, only 89 of the latter for extra bases within 1,349 plate appearances. Or one extra-base hit every 15.2 plate appearances.
I could invest a thesis on this one. I'll instead simply say: Look out, Konnor Griffin.
8. The ball's different.
I know, I know, the ball's the same for all 30 teams. And in that context, the complaints have come from all over about Rob Manfred's repeated mishandling of the simple task of how a ball should be constructed.
Andrew McCutchen held two balls up for me side-by-side after this game, asked me what I saw.
The one on the right was visibly smaller, I replied.
"Uh-huh. Not even close."
I asked why the difference.
"Other one's from 2014."
Never used in a game? Never beaten down?
"Never used. It's just a different ball."
He's been riding this issue hard, including social media, and he's not about to let up, judging from him then setting those balls down on a table to photograph them. He's hardly alone. Complaints are now coming from hitters across the majors about how it's harder than ever to hit, doubly so for power, where the sweet spot's paramount.
This has been most evident in 2025 with hitters everywhere expressing visible frustration when they're dead-certain they've hit one out, only to watch it die on the track.
Check out Henry Davis last night:
"Can you believe someone like Henry just watching it?" Cutch would say, referring to Davis' do-everything-right persona. "No way. No chance."
Henry's take when I brought it up today?
"Murdered it. No-doubter."
He knows what a home run feels like.
"I do. That's not a home run. That's a bomb."
Again, though, this is all true for everyone. So if there'd be any special acknowledgement related to the Pirates, it might be that they already weren't going to hit for much power, so it becomes exponentially more exasperating when they miss out on the few home runs they might hit.
Or not.
7. PNC Park's fault?
This one feels like a reach, maybe, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa brought up earlier this month with DK Pittsburgh Sports' José Negron that the Pirates' roster wasn't exactly a match for their home stadium's dimensions.
His stance at the time: "It's a very, very hard place to hit here. When you don't have slug and don't have guys who are gonna hit the ball like Oneil Cruz, you kind of need to play on an even field, or if you want to have a contact team, you need shorter grass. You look at what we did in San Diego and Arizona, a lot of that had to do with contact that would get through the infield. Our field is not set up for our strengths."
He's right. That dates back to the days when Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez would plead with the PNC Park grounds crew to let the grass grow long to buy them more time to make plays on the left side of the diamond, and it sure wasn't about to change under a GM who's never prioritized offense in any capacity.
Check this out, too:
BASEBALL SAVANT
Those are the Pirates' extra-base hits at PNC Park this season. Even with Cruz's river-level capability, that's not much over the Clemente Wall. Six total.
Brian O'Neill, the excellent former columnist at both the Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Press, once coined the term 'Lefty McThump' for the type of hitter the team should've been coveting from the day PNC Park opened, because of the 320-foot proximity of the 21-foot-tall Clemente Wall. But it's barely ever materialized. Brian Giles was a carryover from Three Rivers Stadium and, to date, the finest fit for that moniker. Adam LaRoche was signed to be that, but only then did Dave Littlefield and crew get the memo that his power was to the North Side Notch dead zone in left-center. Pedro Alvarez fulfilled it for a spell but only when he wasn't whiffing.
Other teams tailor rosters to their home. This one doesn't.
Cherington was asked this morning on his weekly team-produced radio show about Kiner-Falefa's remarks to our site, and he replied: "It might help increase offense if we move the fences in, but it also means you're giving up more runs. There are tradeoffs with that, as a team that can be built through pitching and defense, what are we valuing?"
We never have to wonder what he values. It sure isn't offense.
And when he does dare to delve into offense, it's invariably some slop about not swinging the bat. Also on show, he'd describe having spoken with a player after the game last night about creating more consistent offense, saying the Pirates need "regular, deeper, tough at-bats ... and even if the outcome is not always a successful base hit or extra-base hit."
Got that part nailed.
6. The alleged power positions
Catcher, corner infield and corner outfield have been the sources of most of baseball's bop for more than a century, but that evidently wasn't enough precedent for Cherington and the white collars: They entered this season supplementing Hayes with an exact replica in Jared Triolo, they acquired a platoon-hitting, low-power first baseman in Horwitz, they didn't even bother with the other half of the platoon needed there, and the pivotal right field bat proved to be Pham.
Slam Bob Nutting all day and all night over payroll. It's deserved. But the Reds signed Austin Hays, a 29-year-old corner outfielder, out of free agency for one year at $5 million, and all Hays has done in Cincinnati so far is slash .303/.346/.555 for a .901 OPS that'd be the best on the Pirates by only, uh, 139 points ... yeah, good luck blaming the boss because Pham got one year at $4.025 million.
Behind the plate could've been reasonably expected to be different. Joey Bart was coming off what appeared to be a breakthrough 2024 and, between Davis and Endy Rodriguez, there were two young options, one of them a No. 1 overall pick and the other a former No. 1 prospect in this system. Nope: The catchers are cumulatively slashing .223/.315/.315 for a .630 OPS that's 23rd in the majors. Five total home runs.
Nobody gets better here, but that regression door's built without hinges.
5. The source that weighs most
Way too much attention across sports, really, is paid to transactions at the top level.
I write this with immense respect for what Cutch is doing exactly two decades from his draft month of June 2005, but there's no way that anyone at age 38 should be leading any team anywhere in OPS, as he's still doing here at .762. I mean, again, awesome for him. He's special in every way. It's just ... no one else could've come along?
This is where the draft comes in. And international acquisitions. And prospects added through Cherington's trades of all those in-their-prime big-leaguers like Joe Musgrove, Starling Marte, Josh Bell and several others.
Net return on the current roster: Zilch.
This can't be overstated and, honestly, I shouldn't list anything above it. But I'm going to, anyway, because I feel it's more of a 2025 exercise.
4. Reynolds hurt ... a lot
Watching from the press box today, I'd observed in Bryan Reynolds' first plate appearance -- and spoke out loud to our reporter, Eric Bowser, next to me -- that Reynolds' swing and even his self-maligned timing appeared to be sharp. Soon enough, he'd go 3 for 4 with a double, walk and RBI. Impressive in any circumstance but especially in being freshly back from paternity leave. (And a second boy!)
Reynolds, man. He's good. He's this team's best everyday player.
But there's nowhere to run or hide from .226/.300/.364, eight home runs and 39 RBIs at near-midpoint, and he's known it. This season's taken a bite out of him in a way I hadn't seen with previous mini-slumps. He's beaten himself up.
Of this output, he'd smile slightly and say, "Yeah, just taking what they give you, not trying to do too much. Driving in the gaps. Just keeping the line moving."
It moves nowhere without him.
3. Cruz's smile?
Now, Cruz isn't the type to smile slightly. He's the type to have those pearly whites stretch from here to Stanwix Street.
Except when he isn't:
JOE ROBBINS / GETTY
Oneil Cruz strikes out in the eighth inning Sunday at PNC Park.
That's 0 for 4 with a walk and the above strikeout. And after a 1-for-12 series amid a .162, three-extra-base-hit June ... yeah. That's not anywhere in the realm of the rocking breakout that'd been needed from this one individual, fairly or not, when weighing his ceiling. He's batting .211 for the season with 13 home runs, one of those in the past month, and 39 RBIs.
Worse, as was witnessed over the weekend, he can drag all this into the field.
Don Kelly's reduced to lauding Cruz for a late-game walk, saying of the one here: “He's not himself right now at the plate. He's still caught a little bit in between. And for him to be able to work that walk and get on and steal that base ..."
Uh-huh. I just think he needs to smile more again. I mentioned this to him afterward.
"I'm always smiling," he replied with the teeth to match. "You'll see."
2. 'A losing team'
Kiner-Falefa's as unafraid as it gets in this environment. And on the specific subject of hitting, he should be, with a .275 average out of the No. 9 hole where he's found a productive home. He's been the clubhouse's most honest, most eloquent on this throughout.
I went to his stall after this game hoping for more.
“I think we're doing the best we can," he told me. "We dealt with a lot of injuries in the beginning of the season, so I think right now is like the first time our team is at full strength. It just sucks, but yeah, this is what I think we're capable of.”
Nothing amiss with bringing that up. Neither Horwitz nor Nick Gonzales are All-Stars, but that was the intended starting right side of the infield. Both missed two months to injury.
I then ran past Kiner-Falefa how free-flowing the at-bats appeared to be on this day, even with the sweltering 93-degree heat, how one good one seemed to follow the next.
"It’s not easy to hit on losing teams," came the reply. "When you get guys on, there are more possibilities. You're able to bunt, hit-and-run, you're able to do more things, and I think it's just more team baseball. I think when we're struggling at the plate, it's more of just trying to do too much. It’s nice to see these guys have some success.”
Mm-hm. Looked like it, too.
"Yeah, I think so," Gonzales would tell me. "You need guys who get on base and you need guys to drive guys in. I think we have that. We don't have it as much as some other teams, but I think the balance is there. We just need to have that feeling like we did today, where you don't go up there feeling like it's all on you."
Massive factor here. I believe this.
1. Fire Cherington
Today. Then again tomorrow. Then Tuesday, as well.
None of what's above changes until his office nameplate does.
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
11:21 pm - 06.22.2025North ShoreDK: Ten reasons the Pirates (almost always) can't hit
JOE ROBBINS / GETTY
Bryan Reynolds on the basepaths Sunday at PNC Park.
I don't cross the river to PNC Park in a mood for micro-analysis much anymore, and I can't imagine that many do. Too much has gone too wrong for too long, and we're already halfway through a summer that's got the Pirates on a mathematical pace to lose 100.
So, if there's a nice win?
OK, nice win.
Someone pitched well?
Of course they did. They almost always do.
The offense erupted for eight runs and 15 hits, more than half of those from Spencer Horwitz, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Tommy Pham, to rout the Rangers, 8-3? And Pham doubles twice after not having an extra-base hit since April 26? And drives in three runs to raise his season total to an even dozen?
Ummm ... yeah, let's stick with the macro.
Here are my 10 reasons why the Pirates remain, even after this outlier of an outburst, Major League Baseball's most awful offense, and they're offered in a format that, I hope, presents a case that's both fair and full to all concerned, except, of course, to Ben Cherington, who should've been fired before anyone made it this far through the column:
10. The hitting coaches stink.
I feel the least strongly about this one, given the GM's allotted talent pool, but there's still no way to omit Andy Haines and/or Matt Hague, if only because they've both held one job with one responsibility, and that's to make hitters better. Which, if that's happened under the two major-league hitting coaches Cherington's hired, it's being held like a state secret.
Really, name one.
Just one. Over five-plus years. Not even necessarily someone who became good. Just someone who improved. To any degree. For even a week or two.
Nah?
Kinda problematic.
9. The development stinks worse.
Meaning through the minor-league system, and that's not exactly new. Two American League scouts have told me the Pirates' hitting instruction is such that, even on those rare occasions that an actual talent's put into the pipeline, it's only a matter of time before they revert to a non-swinging, power-free pumpkin, all in the name of pleasing Cherington and the analytics army's broader ambition of watching pitches go by.
Which, as real, live baseball people will attest, shouldn't be fully emphasized until a prospect's closer to the top level. Because -- and this is crazy stuff, I know -- they have to continue learning how to hit. They have to hit before they can walk. As I learned upon a trip to the Dominican Republic a few years back, a common saying among the players there is, 'You can't walk off the island.' Kids have to hit. And to hit, they have to swing.
Take Termarr Johnson: He's 21, he was the Pirates' No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, billed at the time as "one of the best pure high school hitters in recent memory," per MLB Pipeline. He recently fell all the way off Baseball America's top 100 list, and he's down to 81 on Pipeline.
Why? His four-year slash line is .241/.379/.402, with only the middle one -- on-base percentage -- being encouraging. He has 232 walks, but that's against 261 hits, only 89 of the latter for extra bases within 1,349 plate appearances. Or one extra-base hit every 15.2 plate appearances.
I could invest a thesis on this one. I'll instead simply say: Look out, Konnor Griffin.
8. The ball's different.
I know, I know, the ball's the same for all 30 teams. And in that context, the complaints have come from all over about Rob Manfred's repeated mishandling of the simple task of how a ball should be constructed.
Andrew McCutchen held two balls up for me side-by-side after this game, asked me what I saw.
The one on the right was visibly smaller, I replied.
"Uh-huh. Not even close."
I asked why the difference.
"Other one's from 2014."
Never used in a game? Never beaten down?
"Never used. It's just a different ball."
He's been riding this issue hard, including social media, and he's not about to let up, judging from him then setting those balls down on a table to photograph them. He's hardly alone. Complaints are now coming from hitters across the majors about how it's harder than ever to hit, doubly so for power, where the sweet spot's paramount.
This has been most evident in 2025 with hitters everywhere expressing visible frustration when they're dead-certain they've hit one out, only to watch it die on the track.
Check out Henry Davis last night:
"Can you believe someone like Henry just watching it?" Cutch would say, referring to Davis' do-everything-right persona. "No way. No chance."
Henry's take when I brought it up today?
"Murdered it. No-doubter."
He knows what a home run feels like.
"I do. That's not a home run. That's a bomb."
Again, though, this is all true for everyone. So if there'd be any special acknowledgement related to the Pirates, it might be that they already weren't going to hit for much power, so it becomes exponentially more exasperating when they miss out on the few home runs they might hit.
Or not.
7. PNC Park's fault?
This one feels like a reach, maybe, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa brought up earlier this month with DK Pittsburgh Sports' José Negron that the Pirates' roster wasn't exactly a match for their home stadium's dimensions.
His stance at the time: "It's a very, very hard place to hit here. When you don't have slug and don't have guys who are gonna hit the ball like Oneil Cruz, you kind of need to play on an even field, or if you want to have a contact team, you need shorter grass. You look at what we did in San Diego and Arizona, a lot of that had to do with contact that would get through the infield. Our field is not set up for our strengths."
He's right. That dates back to the days when Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez would plead with the PNC Park grounds crew to let the grass grow long to buy them more time to make plays on the left side of the diamond, and it sure wasn't about to change under a GM who's never prioritized offense in any capacity.
Check this out, too:
BASEBALL SAVANT
Those are the Pirates' extra-base hits at PNC Park this season. Even with Cruz's river-level capability, that's not much over the Clemente Wall. Six total.
Brian O'Neill, the excellent former columnist at both the Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Press, once coined the term 'Lefty McThump' for the type of hitter the team should've been coveting from the day PNC Park opened, because of the 320-foot proximity of the 21-foot-tall Clemente Wall. But it's barely ever materialized. Brian Giles was a carryover from Three Rivers Stadium and, to date, the finest fit for that moniker. Adam LaRoche was signed to be that, but only then did Dave Littlefield and crew get the memo that his power was to the North Side Notch dead zone in left-center. Pedro Alvarez fulfilled it for a spell but only when he wasn't whiffing.
Other teams tailor rosters to their home. This one doesn't.
Cherington was asked this morning on his weekly team-produced radio show about Kiner-Falefa's remarks to our site, and he replied: "It might help increase offense if we move the fences in, but it also means you're giving up more runs. There are tradeoffs with that, as a team that can be built through pitching and defense, what are we valuing?"
We never have to wonder what he values. It sure isn't offense.
And when he does dare to delve into offense, it's invariably some slop about not swinging the bat. Also on show, he'd describe having spoken with a player after the game last night about creating more consistent offense, saying the Pirates need "regular, deeper, tough at-bats ... and even if the outcome is not always a successful base hit or extra-base hit."
Got that part nailed.
6. The alleged power positions
Catcher, corner infield and corner outfield have been the sources of most of baseball's bop for more than a century, but that evidently wasn't enough precedent for Cherington and the white collars: They entered this season supplementing Hayes with an exact replica in Jared Triolo, they acquired a platoon-hitting, low-power first baseman in Horwitz, they didn't even bother with the other half of the platoon needed there, and the pivotal right field bat proved to be Pham.
Slam Bob Nutting all day and all night over payroll. It's deserved. But the Reds signed Austin Hays, a 29-year-old corner outfielder, out of free agency for one year at $5 million, and all Hays has done in Cincinnati so far is slash .303/.346/.555 for a .901 OPS that'd be the best on the Pirates by only, uh, 139 points ... yeah, good luck blaming the boss because Pham got one year at $4.025 million.
Behind the plate could've been reasonably expected to be different. Joey Bart was coming off what appeared to be a breakthrough 2024 and, between Davis and Endy Rodriguez, there were two young options, one of them a No. 1 overall pick and the other a former No. 1 prospect in this system. Nope: The catchers are cumulatively slashing .223/.315/.315 for a .630 OPS that's 23rd in the majors. Five total home runs.
Nobody gets better here, but that regression door's built without hinges.
5. The source that weighs most
Way too much attention across sports, really, is paid to transactions at the top level.
I write this with immense respect for what Cutch is doing exactly two decades from his draft month of June 2005, but there's no way that anyone at age 38 should be leading any team anywhere in OPS, as he's still doing here at .762. I mean, again, awesome for him. He's special in every way. It's just ... no one else could've come along?
This is where the draft comes in. And international acquisitions. And prospects added through Cherington's trades of all those in-their-prime big-leaguers like Joe Musgrove, Starling Marte, Josh Bell and several others.
Net return on the current roster: Zilch.
This can't be overstated and, honestly, I shouldn't list anything above it. But I'm going to, anyway, because I feel it's more of a 2025 exercise.
4. Reynolds hurt ... a lot
Watching from the press box today, I'd observed in Bryan Reynolds' first plate appearance -- and spoke out loud to our reporter, Eric Bowser, next to me -- that Reynolds' swing and even his self-maligned timing appeared to be sharp. Soon enough, he'd go 3 for 4 with a double, walk and RBI. Impressive in any circumstance but especially in being freshly back from paternity leave. (And a second boy!)
Reynolds, man. He's good. He's this team's best everyday player.
But there's nowhere to run or hide from .226/.300/.364, eight home runs and 39 RBIs at near-midpoint, and he's known it. This season's taken a bite out of him in a way I hadn't seen with previous mini-slumps. He's beaten himself up.
Of this output, he'd smile slightly and say, "Yeah, just taking what they give you, not trying to do too much. Driving in the gaps. Just keeping the line moving."
It moves nowhere without him.
3. Cruz's smile?
Now, Cruz isn't the type to smile slightly. He's the type to have those pearly whites stretch from here to Stanwix Street.
Except when he isn't:
JOE ROBBINS / GETTY
Oneil Cruz strikes out in the eighth inning Sunday at PNC Park.
That's 0 for 4 with a walk and the above strikeout. And after a 1-for-12 series amid a .162, three-extra-base-hit June ... yeah. That's not anywhere in the realm of the rocking breakout that'd been needed from this one individual, fairly or not, when weighing his ceiling. He's batting .211 for the season with 13 home runs, one of those in the past month, and 39 RBIs.
Worse, as was witnessed over the weekend, he can drag all this into the field.
Don Kelly's reduced to lauding Cruz for a late-game walk, saying of the one here: “He's not himself right now at the plate. He's still caught a little bit in between. And for him to be able to work that walk and get on and steal that base ..."
Uh-huh. I just think he needs to smile more again. I mentioned this to him afterward.
"I'm always smiling," he replied with the teeth to match. "You'll see."
2. 'A losing team'
Kiner-Falefa's as unafraid as it gets in this environment. And on the specific subject of hitting, he should be, with a .275 average out of the No. 9 hole where he's found a productive home. He's been the clubhouse's most honest, most eloquent on this throughout.
I went to his stall after this game hoping for more.
“I think we're doing the best we can," he told me. "We dealt with a lot of injuries in the beginning of the season, so I think right now is like the first time our team is at full strength. It just sucks, but yeah, this is what I think we're capable of.”
Nothing amiss with bringing that up. Neither Horwitz nor Nick Gonzales are All-Stars, but that was the intended starting right side of the infield. Both missed two months to injury.
I then ran past Kiner-Falefa how free-flowing the at-bats appeared to be on this day, even with the sweltering 93-degree heat, how one good one seemed to follow the next.
"It’s not easy to hit on losing teams," came the reply. "When you get guys on, there are more possibilities. You're able to bunt, hit-and-run, you're able to do more things, and I think it's just more team baseball. I think when we're struggling at the plate, it's more of just trying to do too much. It’s nice to see these guys have some success.”
Mm-hm. Looked like it, too.
"Yeah, I think so," Gonzales would tell me. "You need guys who get on base and you need guys to drive guys in. I think we have that. We don't have it as much as some other teams, but I think the balance is there. We just need to have that feeling like we did today, where you don't go up there feeling like it's all on you."
Massive factor here. I believe this.
1. Fire Cherington
Today. Then again tomorrow. Then Tuesday, as well.
None of what's above changes until his office nameplate does.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
We’d love to have you!